Read More

"I really hated the experience," Del Toro said during a talk at the BFI London Film Festival.

"My first American experience was almost my last because it was with the Weinsteins and Miramax. I have got to tell you, two horrible things happened in the late nineties, my father was kidnapped and I worked with the Weinsteins."

He added: "I know which one was worse... the kidnapping made more sense, I knew what they wanted."

The director said one positive to come from the experience was he "learned to fight".

"I lost casting battles, I lost story battles but the one thing Mimic is visually 100% exactly what I wanted.

"The movie is visually gorgeous and it has a couple of sequences I'm very proud of."

He added: "On one of our first meetings they said the only rule you've got to follow is you cannot harm kids or pets. So I had one scene where I killed two kids and one dog... I don't know if this is much of an achievement but it felt like one."

Despite issuing a general apology Weinstein has failed to comment on many of the accusations. He issued a vehement denial over three allegations of rape which emerged on Tuesday.